Monday 25th June 2012

"This is a healthy dose of reality for most England fans, brought up on the belief that England has always been the ebst as well as inventing the game. But years or under-investment in youth, and over reliance on expensive imports have meant a dearth of talent in the Premier League, and this day had been coming a long time, that most hadn’t seen it coming is a sad indightment on the FA and Premier League. Many of the so-called world’s best, or Golden Generation have had their international careers brought to an inglorious end, and rightly so. Failure of the basics like how to control the ball with one touch or be able to pass to each other being worse offences than tactics or who should or shouldn’t have played. That there are no real replacements in the pipeline means that the day when England might challenge for the World Cup is maybe a generation away, and only then if there is a sea change in attitudes, which lets be honest, isn’t going to happen any day soon."

Not written about last night's game, but words I wrote nearly two years ago after England crashed out of the World Cup to Germany. Sad to say not much has changed in the passing of those 24 months, just a lot of missed chances to make things better.

Or begin to.

And so the sporting weekend, right from 5 on Friday evening, was a build up to the final of the European Quarter Finals; England v Italy. Now, I know you only have my word for this, but my expectations were already low going into the competition; and even after coming top of the group, I did not think we were good enough to beat Italy.



But, even I underestimated quite how bad England could get. Of course that depends if you’re a glass half full or half empty kind of person, but every statistic showed England very much second best. After a bright opening 15 minutes, England were chasing shadows for the rest of the game and into extra time. Andy Carroll came on and ran around to little effect; Wayne Rooney just looked uninterested. Again. Ashley Young and James Milner just didn’t show up and were awful. In the end, there has been no real change from the World Cup two years ago, and England lack the basic skills to be able to compete at a major tournament: the ability to pass or receive a ball, being able to keep position for more than 5 seconds. It was soul-destroying stuff in all honesty. And change will only come from a new generation of young players tought to love the ball rather than be frightened of it and need to get rid of it as soon as possible. And that kind of change will take ten to fifteen years at least, and the rest of football will have moved on even further by then.

Quite how it came to this, especially as the Premier League was supposed to make things better, not worse.

The only positive is to lose against Italy on penalties now, rather than be thumped by the Germans (again) in the semi-finals.

Sigh.



Other than that, it was a typical June weekend; stormy with heavy rain in parts, and warm enough to sit in the garden of you kept hold of your reading matter. Saturday morning, we met our friends Matt and Darina at Bluebirds for breakfast. They have just given birth to their first child, who is a delight. How odd it is to see them with such a charge. Time moves on and we all get older and take on responsibilities. Their child is just two weeks old, but has a head of hair already, and Darina knows what each cry and whimper means. We had a full English to eat, and time enough to talk and catch up. From our window seat we could see the edge of the cliffs and the light playing over the surface of the Channel. It really is a wonderful spot for breakfast, even better as the breakfast is so good with properly sourced ingredients for maximum flavour.



Sunday the rain did fall. Hour after hour after hour. And our long-planned walk around Blean woods to visit the sites of the last armed uprising in Britain will have to wait another day. The clouds did clear enough to meet Frances and her new partner for a walk round Faversham in-between the showers. We ended up at the creek and went aboard a Thames barge that had been renovated. We went on board, looked round and came off again.



We ended up in the town centre, and watched a Morris team perform a clog dance or three, then as the clouds gathered for more rain we walked back to her house, then left to drive home for dinner and the football.

Oh yes, the football. One other item from last week, is that I have cancelled our, my, Sky Sports subscription, due to the cost, and I think we could put the money towards something else. We shall see how that decision feels come opening day of the new season, but I think it is right. We shall see.

And one positive item is that we have climbed back on the cross-trainer again, and so the work-outs have restarted. It’s a long road, but the first step is the hardest, and should get easier from now on. So, its good night from me….